AnyLetter

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

I am the Geopolitician!

I can't be the only one to notice these changes. What a weird world we live in, right? Last year I was all for democracy in Ukraine (The Land, which is why I refuse to call it "The" Ukraine), just ask a very "special" ex of mine. Granted, Eastern European politics strikes close to home with me, what with my Grandparents having to dodge a minefield to get from Hungary to Austria (with my Aunt Maria, born Marika, and my Grandmother pregnant with my mother). Touchy subject, and if I feel comfortable enough around you, it's a great story, full of suspense and intrigue. And I'm comfortable around everyone, unless you're gorgeous, then I'm just a tad bit shy. Anyways!

At times, I've been known to talk about American politics. Well, North American, at least (ask me about South America and how USA should handle the despots/dictators/democracies down there, why don't you).

Well hell, I'm off on so many tangents when all I really want to say is...Canada is fucked. Earlier today the equivalent to the House of Reps voted overwhelmingly against the Prime Minister and his party (elections begin in January to replace the current government). Now, I don't claim to have all the details (Though like Yuschenko, I'm intrigued, meaning I'll have all the information and then some within 24 hours, as well as opinions for and against).

National distrust in USA is one thing, we're large enough, population-wise, to accept most ways of life. It's our neighbooring countries which I sometimes worry about. Early in the 20th century there was the Catholic purging of Mexico, and now, early in the 21st century there is a liberal purging of Canada. Whichever side of the fence you're on, both are wrong. Everyone should be an acceptable human being, at the very least.

My friend, after I told him the news, said that Ca. was getting its act together, being more in line with it's brothers (USA and Australia) and it's father (GB). Now, I'm not a terribly aggressive person, but if one nation decides to act contrary to another, then so let it.

Fucking Americentrics.

It isn't all Western Hemisphere/48th parellel, you know. There are other people outside the USA, and when Canada (or as I sometimes call it, America's hat) collapses, it ought to mean as much to us as a collapse in Ukranian government meant to Russia.

Canada down, 192 nations to go (and I think France with all the rioting, though it may have died down, is next).

Republics/ Democratic Republics have been proven not to work. Only a true democracy, one without media intervention, can avoid the problems of a GWB or a politcal coup in Canada.

Right wing nutjob my ass.

It's time to relable myself. The geopolitician.

Give me more non americentric news and I will blow anyone out of the water. Beware, though, I may find the information out myself. Be careful of the man with interest.

Extensions Security Slightly less secure than an integrated approach. I say this because an independent of FF third party coder does not have the manpower or resources to fully test Firefox plus extension in question. Compared to IE this isn't that big of a concern. Another security issue is that often the extension is hosted on a third party site. That's fine for, say, me, who knows what he's looking for and can find the best extension for a specific purpose. But for someone switching from IE only recently could very well find the FF extension of their favorite spy ware program, hence making the switch a pointless exercise in security. If you didn't exercise caution using IE, what makes you say that you will with Firefox?

Usability There are also some usability concerns with extensions. Case in point is this, many extensions work differently than their integrated counterparts. Though this mostly only affects Opera users who occasionally browse with Firefox (there are more of us than you may realize), the amount of annoyances this causes is enough to turn off an Opera user from Firefox. For example, I use past-and-go several times throughout the day. P&G is a shortcut that when used, acts as a combination of CTRL-V and enter in the address bar. Now in Opera, all I do is copy the URL I want, move over to the address bar, hit CTRL-D and bam, I'm at Google looking for clown porn or what have you. The Firefox extension, however, can only be accessed by right clicking on the address bar and selecting "Paste and Go".

You have no idea how many useless bookmarks I have in FF because of this. And I hate bookmarks with a burning passion. It's browsing for morons, I say. But like I said, this isn't a critique by an IE user, but an Opera user, so many of these things don't much matter.

Stability What guarantee do you have that this program will not break your Firefox, or more importantly, your OS. In fact, I've had this happen to me once, where an extension corrupted FF. A headache I could have avoided had I been aware that the specific extension conflicted with an existing one. The OS claim is rather far-fetched, but by virtue of the previous problem, can and might exist.

Bloat Up until a few months ago I learned that bloat wasn't just how small the program was versus its function. I'll weigh more on the alternate definition when I get to the integrated portion of my comparison. Firefox, by itself, does so little when you think about it. You use it to browse the Internet. Granted, as time goes by, the complexity of the net increases. It isn't just HTML anymore. But directly comparing Opera to FF, two programs which I consider to be comparable to one another, the size of FF being twice that of Opera's makes me wonder how optimal the code really is.

Integrated Features (as I do have a bias, one which I freely admit, I will attempt to balance this portion with the previous, both in content and criticism): Security Off the bat, one can see how integrated features do not necessarily affect the security of the program. But there are always bugs, and as the popularity of Opera grows (as it has), I wont be surprised if some security issues are related to specific features. Secunia doesn't rate M2, Opera's built in mail client, but the program as a whole. There unfortunately isn't enough data to support either claim.

Though when an update to the program comes, so does an update for a bug which affects the security of that program. Unlike an extension, where the author updates irregularly (woah, sorta like me).

Usability An integrated feature can realitvely easily be modified through the options dialogue. No tricky hack or editing is needed. Though at times this can be as difficult as a hack. Suppose you don't have the specific parameters of a function? Good luck finding it. And then, those damn Opera features don't work how a FF extension does. This is a standards problem as much as anything, and it's personal preference which approach you prefer.

Stability It sure seems stable, but that's also because the control program I'm using is Closed Source. Internal testing allows these problems to be caught long before the final prodcut, and often before beta testing begins. I prefer a program where the developers are getting paid for what they do directly by the software company (not by sponsors), so I generally do go with CS instead of Open Source.

Bloat Here's the tricky part. Until recently I had never heard of feature bloat. And looking at Opera with its integrated features, yeah, it's bloated. There are so many of them that I don't use more than a few. Yes, it's nice to know there's something called "notes" within Opera. But have I ever used it? Nope.

Thing is, even with all these built in features, Opera on average loads much faster on my machine than bare Firefox. But it's a five year old laptop, so I'm sure your results are different from mine.

Conclusion: Use what you want. The only conclusion is what you make of this, compared against your own needs and comfort. Tell me what you think. Comments go below.

Finding a Better Way

I read those few posts that I wrote on paper and I found I blog better when I'm away from the computer. It actually allows me to proofread my writing, though that's an involuntary benefit. More importantly, I have fewer distractions sitting by myself, computer off or wireless disabled.

I wander when I'm online. There are ten sites I go to frequently. Then there are thirty or so that I go to regularly, and those are either bookmarked or I have the URLs memorized. Of course that means at any given moment while I'm online, I'm doing four things at once. Not a lot of room for blogging in there. Hence the sporadic nature of my posts.

Luckily my mousepad also doubles as a notebook which, go figure, all of my miscellaneous writing goes. There is a way for me to acheive a regular posting schedule, and it goes like this:

1. Open up the notebook a few times a day 2. Write whatever comes to mind, usually my better stuff 3. Transcribe all that in Writely (or Word, whichever is easier at the time) 4. Blog 5. Profit

24 more

Twenty Four more page views before I hit 15,000. I hit 10,000 September 27, so not bad overall. 106 views/day? Yeah, that's decent enough, though remember there's like three instalanches in there, so it's more like 40 a day plus 700 every couple of weeks. No matter though, traffic is traffic.

How Embarrassing

So, what's a guy supposed to do when his friend embarrasses him in front of a girl he'd like to be involved with? A question for the ages, people. I feel bad for Mary Catherine, because last night turned into a guys night out with her there. But still, some of my friends need to learn a little tact. I'm at part to blame because I didn't say anything about it. Oh well, i guess if there's anything there, it could be salvageable, right? But I can't even bring it up because I'm so damned embarrassed.

Thursday, November 10, 2005

FSM Commandments

Last night, while working at an Italian restaurant, a funny thing happened to me. Immediately that evening I felt a presence much higher than myself. Preparing a bowl of spaghetti and meatballs, the dish erupted into flame and I recognized the visage of the great Flying Spaghetti Monster, and I fell prostrate. He said to me "Andrew, take these beer bottles. Enscribed on each one is a law which my followers must obey, lest they be led astray." The bowl of spaghetti then ceased to burn, and here I was with several empties. They read:

1. I am the Lord your Flying Spaghetti Monster who brought you out of the land of Kansas, out of the house of bondage. You will have no other Intelligent Designer before me, and Bobby Henderson is my prophet.

2. You will take the Lords name in vain. Often. Especially the one they call God, because I like to see the look on his religious wacko's faces.

3. Keep holy the sabbath day. Each Friday drink in excess and if possible dress like a pirate.

4. Adultery? Not a big deal, really. You don't have to if you don't want to, but I, your Lord, will not take points off if it happens.

5. But stealing, try not to do it.

6. If your neighboor is being an ass, it is perfectly fine to accuse him of being a child pornographer to the FBI.

7. Think about your neighboor's wife as much as you want. The grass is probably greener on the other side anyways. Assuming she has grass.

Sunday, November 06, 2005

Carnival of Computing v1.0.4

I've decided to move this carnival to Mondays, that'll give the host a weekend to prepare. Don't forget to submit your stories here, and ask me about hosting this carnival. It's time for it to move off of my site every week, and you know you'll love the traffic. Most of the following links pop, but I may have missed a few. Enjoy!

Robert Scoble has a post reminding us that websites aren't made by computers, but people. He spoke to one of the builders of Live.com and it sounds like support for Firefox is coming soon. Will it also support Opera.

Scott Clark, who writes for Everything USB reviews Microsoft's Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000. I can honestly say that it's the longest story about a keyboard I've ever seen. Good work and thourough.

Joel Ross of RossCode gives us his weekly roundup of tech news. I've got to give him credit, gather all of that has to take time. If you want links actual tech news stories, go there.

Dwight Silverman of Techblog announces that Microsoft Anti-spyware has undergone a name change. Windows Defender. What's in a name, really?

Charlene Li has a lengthy post about Microsoft Live's strategy. I'm not entirely sold on Live, but I can see where Charlene is coming from. This will be a good thing for Microsoft.

TipMonkies has a short review of Yahoo Maps. I haven't tried it much, so it's probably a good idea to give his review some consideration.

It sounds like Shoe over at Linux Librarian is having some trouble with Flock's blogging interface. I can't blame him, Flock handles one blog account rather well, but I can't imagine it does well with 2 blogs.

Ed Brill is ready for LotuSphere three months before it happens. Can't say I blame him, he's going to be speaking there. Sounds like it's gonna be a blast, congrat's Ed.

Carnival is Ready. Almost

It'll be up as soon as Writely starts allowing me to insert links. It suddenly stopped working just a few minutes ago. No matter, I've got the hard part taken care of, and if it's still acting up in an hour, I'll just do it all by hand.

Soon

I just started working on tomorrow's carnival. It'll be up in a coupleof hours hopefully, but I've got a book of sudoku that I've beenplaying with (thank you Mary Catherine). So my productivity might bedecreased now.

Might be getting an advertiser

I'm in talks with this guy who needs more traffic to his website. So if I put up a link, would you people go there? Maybe a banner? And how much should I charge him? So many questions, I'll probably have to wing it. Oh well, yay for money, though.

Friday, November 04, 2005

MTurk

I would love to try out Amazon's Mechanical Turk. Not only is there money involved, but, um, there's money involved. The problem is, I signed in, and everything is down. The result of a slashdoting? Probably. I'll keep trying throughout the day to see if it starts working again.

Thursday, November 03, 2005

From the Ringleader

Thursday was the day I arbitrarily chose to have the Carnival of Computing. It just isn't working out, though. I don't have a lot of free time to arrange it during the week, and I doubt many others do, either. So I hereby announce that the Carnival will from now on be taking place on Mondays beginning Nov. 7. We will see how this works out, but it ought to be better for all in the future.

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

The Threshold

I've finally crossed the line I didn't even know existed. Before my 4 month long hiatus (thank you so much, Amy, glad Rita came and visited you) I spoke so much more about economic issues. So much so that I made quite a few aquaintences in much higher places than I, a lowly college student. It's unfortunate that I don't keep in touch with some of them as often as I ought (especially Michael Higgins, my first real friend through the 'net). I'm not sure why I've been writing geekier posts the past month or so, but that's where my interest has been.

School has gotten much too tedious and boring for me to rip economic and finacial posts straight from my homework like I used to. I find myself knowing, through my Grandfather and others, many of the topics discussed in class.

I suppose you may say that I write about technology more often because I'm trying to find a brief respite from my classes. And that is half the truth. You see, back in the day (when the net was young and full of vigor) I used to be an electrical engineering major. I might have actually made it if it weren't for physics. After you fail a subject three times (even if you're father has his ph.d. in it) you give up. However, technology has always sparked an interest in me. You can call me a geek if you'd like, but I'd correct you. I'm not a geek, a dork, or any other type of slander directed towards the more technologically apt. I have a bit more of a classical education than you may think (especially because my posts don't alway reflect it). Give my father that much.

So where too next? The last few posts I've given business, personal, and technological insight as best I could I'd leave it up to you, the reader, which direction I should follow, but I know that it is only within me that which will guide me.

I'd rather be a could-be if I cannot be an are; because a could-be is a maybe who is reaching for a star. I'd rather be a has-been than a might-have-been, by far; for a might have-been has never been, but a has was once an are. (Milton Berle).

Or to be more direct and cliche'd, I will aim for the heavens, and if I hit the moon I'll consider myself lucky.

To all you unmarrieds

After all the cheating ex-girlfriends I've had (up to four this past fortnight), this sounds like a lot of fun, though replace the male parts for female and you'll get the idea. Basically, some girl went nutso. I have yet to RTFA, but I can bet it was because the guy went and cheated on her. Poor girl, really. It's like I told my friend Mary Catherine (whose site I will not link to until I have an OK) the other day, there're bastards both male and female. 90% of this world is populated by assholes and bastards. Don't let them bring you down (since it sounds better in latin, "Non illigitamus carborundum {est?}"). Sounds like both she and I have gotten burned by the opposite sex one, or four in my case, too many times. />

People, use common sense. If he/she seems like an ass after a few dates, they probably are (yay subject verb agreement). I try to be an upstanding guy in a relationship, which means I sometimes get walked upon. Just call me the human door mat. Seriously, though, look out. You never know who's going to stab you in the back. I'm not the type, but I've dated plenty of them. Then again, I have yet to be the asshole/bastard of any relationship, and I don't plan to be any time soon. />

You know what, after so long, I think my tastes in women have changed dramatically. I used to go for the ones that would put up with me for extended periods of time. My rule used to be that if they can take me for more than 24 hours, they could take me for life. That's not as important as I used to think it was. Hell, if anyone can put up with me for an hour or so they deserve some kind of award. Even if the you and her (or you and him) don't converse for hours on end, but the feelings are there, go for it. />

No, honesty and openness is what I'm looking for these days. It's taken some work and some time, but I can honestly say that those women are out there. You two probably know who you are, so congratulations (and if you don't, I'll give you a hint. You're the only two WOMEN[!] I keep in touch with because of that). There are men out there just the same, and if you find them, hold on to them. Be it me or someone other than me, it doesn't really matter, so long as you find the one who is open and honsest. Nothing really matters more than those two qualities. />

Does this count as a personal post? I hope not. Didn't I say two weeks ago I'd refrain from them? Thought so. Something in that article must have sparked a semi rant/semi philosoph in me. Do what your heart and mind tells you, but if either says differently, it's not going to work. Trust me, I've been there before. />

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

New Look

Advertising

I'd like to go into some depth regarding online advertising venues, especially those that are text based. I've used AdBrite since March, and I doubt I'll be dropping them any time soon. I've recently started using Yahoo's advertising network, though I'm technically beta testing it. And hopefully, in a week or so, I'll start using AdSense, Google's text ad program (though I still find myself wary of Google, but I use their products).

AdBrite works off of a wonderful idea, one rather well implemented. You receive bids every so often directly from the advertiser. You then review the ad, and if you accept, it runs anywhere from a day to a month. AdBrite tends to manually set the price of an ad running (right now, because my page views are rather low). I fetch a few cents a day for a link, whether you choose to click on it or not. Granted, I'd prefer you did, that way that advertiser has incentive to come back to me. I also get a set amount for clicking on a "network ad". These network ads are ones that AdBrite puts up for me as filler. I don't get paid for having the link up, only when you click on the ad (much like how Yahoo's works). You can manually set the price you'd like to recieve per advertisement/day though I find that set it too high, even by a couple of cents, and you turn off advertisers. I see more and more AdBrite ads than Google ads, and it seems that if you're a high traffic website, AdBrite is for you.

Yahoo Publisher Network works much in the way that Google's AdSense works. You are given a percentage of what and advertiser paid to get the business' advertisment into the network. None of this "we'll pay you to put up this link, whether we get clicked or not". Apparently the risk with Yahoo Publisher is much lower, so you'd think there's a lower payoff, right? Nope. I've had only a few ads clicked on through YPN, and produces a higher yield in pay than an AdBrite ad. And from what I've heard of AdSense, YPN outperforms that also.

Take from this post what you will, but I am going to give some unprofessional advice. If you maintain a small website or blog, use the Yahoo ads as they provide a higher return per visitor. Though, if you're a large website, go with the AdBrite ads, as the bidding can fetch quite a penny (an ad on Fark.com can run upwards of $200 a week). It's up to you. Personally, I'm going to run both and check back on this topic every few months. My site can only get bigger now that I've got a better feel for the blogging world and I'm actually having decent ideas. If you have evidence in contrast to mine, feel free to write about it on your site and link to me or send me an email. Both would be great of course.

Thoughts of Writely

It is, as some of you well know, fast becoming my favorite Web 2.0 application. Net Vibes is up there until they start at least allowing Opera 9 users to see what's wrong with their page (or with Opera). Writely is, of course, and AJAX based word processor (you access it through your browser). Today it became apparent to me why Writely strives to be an aide to bloggers.

On the surface, it is, as I mentioned, a word processor with limited features. Standing back and looking deeper, it's the base definition of a private blog. It's more a journal, of sorts, or can easily act as one. I use two types of labes when writing in it. Anyletter, of course, acts as a repository of blog posts (many of which have been submitted through Writely, though all mistakes have been my own), and Homework, which ought to be self explanatory.

I find the interface aesthetically pleasing, though yellow and green. Much more than MS Office, and it blows Open Office out of the water. I can't say that it beats either in functionality, though Writely isn't supposed to. Use it in a corporate setting and allow multiple employees to write and edit documents. Use it for homework and it becomes an excellent tool to back up all your work, especially if you're prone to needing to format your hard drive every few months, as I am.

Blogging is where Writely shines, whether it meant to or not, and I, as always, commend the team for designing an easy to use, working product with countless possibilities.

Title because I need one

I'm kicking it old school tonight. I went to my favorite coffee shop, which also happens to be one of the few in town without wireless access. I'm also kind of hoping to see at least one of my friends over here while I'm studying, for a break. But looks like in the meantime, blogging on paper will have to do.

Blogging on paper isn't too bad, actually. Granted, you the reader will be getting this a few hours after the fact, but at least you'll get something, unless last week. True, it's pretty hard to get a Carnival of Computing ready without a connection. Oh yeah, you're probably wondering why I'm doing this on paper in the first place. I have a soviet era laptop (five years this past July), and about a year ago the battery crapped out on me. The coffee shop is packed (this is apparently test week at LSU, and this is a popular study ground). So I'm sitting outside, without benefit of electricity. It could be worse, I guess.

Hey, didn't *I* come out here to study? Why yes, yes I did. Maybe I should do that, and every 15-20 minutes take a break and write something a bit more fun.

Techno ratis

The Technorati Grand Slam. A beautiful thing, really. Do it twice in one day (mid afternoon and late afternoon, though probably morning and afternoon would work better) and get a guaranteed 100 extra hits to your site. A Technorati grand slam is, of course, what I do every now and then. Gather links to the most searched keywords on Technorati for a certain hour, and then link to them at the bottom of my blog post. Is it unethical? It sure feels like I'm more just stretching ethics already in place. More hits is more visibility. More visibility means a higher Alexa and Technorati Ranking. And I feel that I'm working for my advertisers (ethical, of course), which means that not only am I doing for myself, I'm doing for them. /> />Unfortunately, it isn't paying off. Yes, my ad placement isn't the best (they should be on the left hand side, not on the right. Top of the page is best), so that's probably a part of it. Who knows. I'll save room for advertising later. /> />But back to Technorati tags. Though they're easily manipulated, and a great tool, I haven't seen much of it going on. Perhaps there are really too many honest bloggers out there, I obviously can't say. Some one commented a couple of weeks on this site saying in effect, "You'll get more hits, as well as returning visitors if you write about the number one most searched for topic/keyword". He was right, I wrote about Hurrican Wilma later that day, it being the most searched topic, and got maybe 150-200 hits off of it. And they kept coming back every few days to check my updates. Or to make fun of me. Dunno. So it does pay to write about a popular topic rather than use the Technorati Grand Slam. Takes about the same amount of time, also, unless you're using Flock. Flock makes tagging a little bit too easy. So do the right thing, it has a higher payoff (be it visibility or advertising). But I still don't know what to make say about Mr. Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court, though I've written off politics as a viable topic for the time being.

I need to Write More often

It has been a busy few days. Judge Alito being nominated to the Supreme Court, Halloween, and all of this wonderfull stuff. I just haven't been writing as often recently, as I'm busy, but I guess from now on I can fit a few posts in every day (now that I've found the perfect time to do so).

Adbrite doesn't yield earning higher than Yahoo's ads, so I've moved that banner up. Not that any of you are going to click an ad, though, so it probably doesn't matter.

And finally, my Alexa ranking. Damn, I really should update more often. More updates means more visitors, and in the last week or so my Alexa ranking went from 100,000 to 500,000. That's a shame, I know I can do better than that. So! More writing, more Technorati Tags, and all will be wonderful.

Free Time

Nothing interesting right now, so I decided to take some time with wonderful class blogging. Yeah, this one is kind of slow right now, and since I take all my notes on my laptop (and there's wireless in the classroom), I may as well do one of the things I truly enjoy. Hence me blogging from class yet again.

Carnival of Computing 1.0.3

It's finally that time of the week, and might I say, it's been for quite a while. Sorry I haven't had time to bring up a few more Carnivals, I've been the busy one lately. Got a new job, school's picked up a lot, but here I am to bring you these past few weeks best and brightes tech blogs. However, I must warn you all, some of these links are a little out of date, so I'm hoping all of you will accept my excuse of being busy. If not, well, that's for you to deal with, and not me :) . My intention is to get this thing going again today, get another one up by this weekend, and then let the Carnival of Computing see the world. It travels (or will travel if someone is up for it) next week.

Submissions go over here, if you would ever be so kind. If you want to host contact me here. Awesome, now lets get started, shall we?

Matt, who runs the Last Page on the Net, has a post titled "Ruler of the World". Though that's disputed these days, it is an interesting piece on how dominant the Apple iPod is these days. I've got to agree that it is a stylish piece of hardware, though I can't comment anything beyond looks (haven't got one, so it would be unfair to delve any deeper). Sounds like Matt knows, though. Hey, why are you reading this? Read his post, not my boring commentary!

Start-ups keep entering the search engine space, but no one has yet solved the problem of overcoming information glut without keeping the user in an echo chamber (check it out over here). That's what Elisa Camahort has to say, and I'm right there with her.

Google-spiracy theorists think they're the new evil empire because of the rumored GoogleBase. Elisa Camahort (yay for double linkage today) argues that Google may not be as bad as some, such as myself, make them out to be. Besides, does any of this really matter in the long run?

The Soldier's Angel, Holly Aho, wants to help us all out. She's been nice enough to write up a how-to on Programming your Blog or Website, Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. That's dedication, so give her some appreciation.

Steve Pavlina's Personal Development Blog discusses productivity. While not exactly falling under any technological category, I find the industry typically lacking of business knowledge (or maybe I remember 1999 better than I ought). Hey, I make the rules, and I say the post fits into this Carnival. Besides, he did use the submission form, and who am I to turn that down?

Ideas in Progress has an interesting post, concerning the fact that computing and storage technology advancements may finally unlock the potential of video content in formal education. This post starts with Edison thinking he has invented a way to replace schoolbooks and ends with Neal Stephenson's Primer. (Props to J Random American for provided a description!)

Despite being, like most less-than-uber-geeky users, resistant to change, Elisa Camahort (whom I must thank for sending me several submissions, a few of which you see above) finally switched browsers. Verdict? Mixed.

Josh Cohen of Multiple Mentality want's to let us know that the UN is beating the "we want control of the internet" drum again. Just what we need, an overweight bureaucracy pulling it's weight to dictate what we can and can't do. Doesn't the US federal government do enough of that already (/libertarian).

Folks, that about does it for this past week's version of the Carnival of Computing. Check back Thursday for the final installment of the Carnival's alpha build, and next week we can start public beta testing. Yeah, it's a little late in the day for me, so humor me and smile at the geek humor. I'd like to thank Writely for making this a little bit easier to write and post, as well as Elisa Camahort for taking the time to send me some wonderful links.